Madhouse

The opening is good and creepy. There's pretty good atmosphere throughout the film. I would say for the most part they pull off the evil sister + rottweiler combo pretty well. The kills in the film are decent as well. The biggest downside to this movie is that the effects are not the best. You'll see what I mean. They work for the most part, but the opening scene makes you wonder whether it's supposed to be a doll or a human she is hitting in the face.

One other complaint is that there are some (movie) deaths of animals on screen which not everyone might tolerate, even if it isn't real. Other than that, can't complain about much else. The acting was actually quite good. For the most part the film is well executed and makes a fine contribution to the roll of 80s slasher films. I do think this is one of the better ones, and would definitely recommend you see it if this is the kind of film you seek out.

As co-written and directed by Ovidio Assonitis ("Beyond the Door", "Tentacles"), "There Was a Little Girl" (a.k.a. "Madhouse") is a mostly tedious affair running through the standard slasher paces adequately but without any real style. For its first two thirds, it actually plays more like a drama with some horror moments than an out and out horror film. It's too bad it got labelled as a Video Nasty, as it's never really that gory, at least not until the end. The good thing is that the performances are better than expected, and things do get marginally more interesting in the final third, with a plot development that some horror fans may see coming and some may not.

Trish Everly stars as Julia, a teacher in a school for deaf children whose birthday is nearing. In the days leading up to it, her deformed, demented twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers) escapes from the hospital. It seems that Mary had dominated and terrorized the meek Julia during their childhood, and now Julia is more than a little concerned. Mary had had a spooky canine companion when the two women were young, and now there's a bloodthirsty dog adding to the weirdness.

For around an hour or so, this is just a little too dull, although Assonitis succeeds in building some atmosphere. But the story becomes more fun upon its one true big reveal. Eventually, this bears some strong resemblances to the Canadian slasher "Happy Birthday to Me", although it's hard to say whether one movie ripped off the other or not. The beautiful Everly does an okay job in the lead, the equally lovely Morgan Most is fine as her friend, and Michael MacRae is acceptable as Julias' psychiatrist / lover, but the person who steals the show is Dennis Robertson as the friendly Father James. The animal work is good; trainer Joe Camp plays the ill-fated hospital guard. However, during the finale, when the crazed dog comes through a door, a special effect is employed, and it's laughably horrible.

Overall, a decent shocker redeemed to a degree by its last act.

Five out of 10.

This is a fun 80s horror movie. It's a bit unpredictable because it doesn't make sense. But it has such a zany energy that it's forgivable imo. Dennis Robertson's performance stands out as being memorable. I will reiterate - you'll have to turn your brain off to enjoy this one. It's creepy and well-made. And it will not answer the questions it raises. It doesn't care about logic.

"Madhouse," also released under the titles "And When She Was Bad" and "There Was a Little Girl," focuses on Julia, a teacher in Savannah, Georgia whose twin sister, Mary, has spent most of her life in a psychiatric institution. After an overdue visit to see her, Julia becomes increasingly paranoid about her sister's ominous warning that she will take revenge on her, and as their mutual birthday approaches, people in Julia's life start dying.

Co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Ovidio G. Assonitis (who several years prior directed the fever-dream "Exorcist" ripoff "Beyond the Door"), "Madhouse" is a halfway decent slasher film that draws on a confluence of contemporaries, but doesn't quite manage to live up to what it sets out to do. The film has been credited by genre fans for its atmosphere and photography, and that is most definitely where I feel the film excels as well. The house it's set in is wildly eerie and the Georgia setting lends an additional layer of Southern Gothic atmosphere that is at times intoxicating.

At times the film feels like a straightforward slasher; at others, it seems like it's edging into the territory of the supernatural, and this lack of transparency keeps the audience on their toes for the first half. The film begins to lose this balancing act though in the last thirty minutes with a premature slipshod reveal and a conclusion that feels uninspired and lazily unfurled. It doesn't necessarily go where you expect it to—I'll give it that— but it's less about the nature of the revelation and more about how it's broached in the narrative. The film was notoriously banned in the UK during the "video nasty" era, and it does boast some considerable gore, though I did feel the bulk of the killings relied a bit too much on the canine dispatch (which itself seems to be a riff on "The Omen" and "Suspiria"). The cast is mostly made up of unknowns, but the performances are decent for a film of this type.

Overall, I found "Madhouse" to be a bit underwhelming, mainly because it sets itself up for greatness, and then handles its conclusion in a way that feels lazy and uninspired given all that precedes it. As sluggish as the last act is, I do have to praise the film for its curation of atmosphere and the moody cinematography. There are some truly unnerving scenes in the house that are memorable, and the film does manage to establish a sense of foreboding before it nearly undoes itself. 6/10.

Okay, I admit this film isn't a masterpiece by any stretch, but slasher aficionados should find it enjoyable. I certainly did and was rather surprised by all the negative reviews I'd previously read. Granted, it's slow going in places, but the murders are genuinely creepy, as well as performances by Dennis Robertson as the twisted Father James and Allison Biggers as the deformed sister, Mary. Some ample doses of blood (in the unrated version) also add to the proceedings. While the film may not appeal to erstwhile horror fans, anybody with a taste for slashers will surely appreciate this entry in the genre.

Note: Some reviewers have condemned this film for lifting a scene out of HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, but the the fact of the matter is that both films were released in the same year (1981), so it's debatable as to who stole what from whom. Personally, I preferred the scene as it was staged in this film, regardless of which came first. See it for yourself and you be the judge.